How is HIV/AIDS an issue in the area? (Consider HIV prevalence, number of orphans, prevalence of opportunistic infections, number of affected households, etc.)

How is HIV/AIDS recognized as an issue by local people and institutions? (Consider general awareness, as well as policy, programme and project context.)

What local HIV/AIDS-related knowledge exists and who transmits it? (Consider information related to the recognition of symptoms, home care, local treatment, taboos, myths, etc.)

Who are the important institutional stakeholders in relation to HIV/AIDS? (List those involved in prevention, care and mitigation of impact. Indicate the level they are operating at; their coverage; their activities relating to nutrition and household food security; their constraints; and their collaborators.)

Who are the important community stakeholders in relation to HIV/AIDS? (List those involved in prevention, care and mitigation of impact. Indicate who participates in terms of gender, socio-economic status, age, etc.)

How does HIV/AIDS contribute to poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition?

How do poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition affect the development of AIDS in people who are HIV-positive?

How do poverty and food insecurity affect the spread of HIV/AIDS within the community?

How to get answers

Contact the national and local AIDS committees and meet with informed people in local institutions.

Make an inventory of organizations, programmes and projects related to HIV/AIDS.

Review area-specific studies, reports and data using a general and sector-specific checklist for HIV/AIDS-related issues to be considered.

Organize a workshop with local stakeholders to discuss local food and livelihood security needs. Feature a session on HIV/AIDS and ensure that:

local organizations working with HIV/AID-affected households are involved;

if possible, organizations of people living with HIV/AIDS are involved;

all workshop participants are encouraged to participate in the session.

When carrying out field appraisals, make sure to identify who is affected by HIV/AIDS, how and why. Ensure that:

appraisal tools are adapted to capture HIV/AIDS-related issues; local HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and practices are considered;

community-based stakeholders and others reflect on how HIV/AIDS affects them directly and indirectly;

constraints and opportunities of HIV/AIDS-affected households in achieving nutrition and food security are assessed.

Design the institutional analysis in such a way as to capture present and future human resource constraints of local institutions and service providers due to HIV/AIDS-related sickness and death.

When analysing the information from the field appraisal, prepare problem trees showing how different types of people, households, communities and institutions are affected by HIV/AIDS. From these problem trees, develop objective trees and outline intervention strategies that address HIV/AIDS-related problems and opportunities. This approach will also help in developing a set of HIV/AIDS-related process and impact indicators.